1913 race car mechanic's death marked with new gravestone

One hundred years after his death, a race car mechanic's previously unmarked grave now has a marker, thanks to the efforts of an Adrian businessman.

Adrian native Milton Michaelis died July 4, 1913, at the third annual 200-mile motor car race in Columbus, Ohio, after the car in which he was riding blew a tire and flipped. The race car driver, Harry C. Knight, 23, and known as the "hero of the Indianapolis Speedway," was killed almost instantly. Michaelis, 21, died a few hours later. Known as a 'mechanician' at the time, Michaelis was buried in an unmarked grave next to his father in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery off Oakwood Avenue.

His story became a source of intrigue for John Morton from Continental Service, who is also a member of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum.

"The whole story intrigued me," Morton said, after a race car historian who competed in the 1960s and 1970s started researching race car drivers and their mechanics who died starting in the early 1900s. For the first 10 years of motor car racing, drivers had a mechanic on board to speedily tend to repairs while on the track.

"He stumbled on the fact there are 50 or so buried in unmarked graves," Morton said of the historian's efforts.

With that, members started a program to raise funds to place markers on unmarked graves. And as it turns out, Morton said, one of those graves was in Adrian.

Morton started soliciting funds in February through the Racers At Rest program to help pay the $900 for the marker and its placement. Thanks to "lots of generous people," the stone was set on June 8.

"Finally, he is a racer at rest," Morton said.

And Morton isn't stopping with Michaelis' marker. He is helping to raise funds for a driver buried in Mount Ever Rest Cemetery in Kalamazoo. Driver Matthew Heid was killed June 29, 1949.